Posts tagged ‘Renewable Fuels Association’

When Bob Dinneen stepped up to address the National Ethanol Conference this week, the house was packed. The CEO and president of the Renewable Fuels Association is an undoubted highlight of the event, bringing his passion and energy to the sometimes unequal struggle and the assembled crowd was effusive in its applause as he drew his remarks to a close.

Mexico’s emerging ethanol industry has been a hot topic for US ethanol producers and exporters over 2016, as draft legislation in the country put it front and center in a growing discussion about global ethanol markets.

But with Mexico’s decision to not allow ethanol blending in its major population areas, and with Donald Trump now president-elect of the US, what could that mean for the budding ethanol trade flow between Mexico and the US?

For those ethanol producers outside of the US, the subtitle of the Renewable Fuels Association’s National Ethanol Conference — “Going Global” — is likely to unleash ripples of unease across their industry. Far from reeling from a perceived loss of support in the face of government hesitation and collapsing crude oil prices, the US ethanol sector is enjoying an upbeat gathering deep in the heart of Texas.

That the CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association would come out fighting after the 2013 annus horribilis was to be expected. When Bob Dinneen, a man they’ve come to call the Reverend in these parts because of his full throttle evangelisin’ on the blendstock’s position in the USA, took the stage to deliver the keynote opening address to the 2014 National Ethanol Conference last week, the packed auditorium knew broadly what to expect.

The AAA — that’s now the formal name, but it used to be the American Automobile Association — sent out a press release today that landed in my mailbox at 12:05 pm Eastern time. The release said that the Environmental Protection Agency should reduce the 2014 renewable fuels mandate, which it has signaled it will do, because of concerns that the 10% blend wall would be hit, creating “a possible surge in gas prices or the increased use of potentially damaging E15 gasoline.”

The time of the response by the Renewable Fuels Association: 12:24 pm, just 19 minutes later. That’s what a “war room” does.

Bob Dineen, the head of the Renewable Fuels Association, is one of the energy industry’s most notable success stories in Washington. Outside of losing the blender’s ethanol credit a few years ago, which by the end the RFA had stopped resisting anyway, the ethanol industry has been a consistent winner in the game of politics. I was in Washington in 2006 when a long-time observer of the Washington scene noted with a sense of amazement that President Bush was going to be speaking to an upcoming RFA summit, and Bob Dineen was going to introduce him. That’s clout.

So it was always going to be interesting waiting to see just what Dineen said about the climbing value of RINs. (They’re falling today). Last Thursday, he finally made his case on the RFA’s website.